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Monday, 6 February 2012

Vegan Grasshopper Pie

♥ Today is our 4 year Veganniversary!! I would like to say I made this for such a special day but it was made days ago and is now long gone!! ♥

This was amazing!! And yes, the "eating less white sugar" resolution has taken a little holiday ;-) I have been wanting to make a vegan grasshopper pie for ages now as it was always one of my favourites growing up, such a classic North American pie, I mean who doesn't love chocolate and mint together?

While I am sure there are plenty of vegan grasshopper pie recipes out there I knew I didn't have to look far for one as I figured my White Chocolate Grand Marnier Mousse recipe swapping the Grand Marnier for Creme de Menthe would do the trick. This is my standard mousse recipe that you have seen many times on the blog:

The recipe is almost always the same: soya whipping cream, chocolate, liqueur and icing sugar. It worked out perfectly as a grasshopper pie but I am SO glad I had some green food colouring in the house. You would think as creme de menthe is so vibrantly green it would turn the mousse the same colour. No. In fact when you add it to soya whipping cream and vegan white chocolate, which is more of a beige colour than white, it turns the mousse a pale grey colour. It was seriously unappetizing looking. I would have happily left this white or even a very pale pastel green but grey? No, so in went the food colouring.

As for the base, traditionally grasshopper pie is made with an Oreo cookie crumb base. The Oreo's here are not vegan so I had to come up with a homemade chocolate cookie crust. This one worked perfectly and is so amazing I'm thinking of making bars with it. The chocolate flavour is just right and with that minty mousse it was like eating a Viscount biscuit - amazing! Altogether that crust with that mousse is heavenly.....

BUT...

...I wasn't going to blog this. It tastes amazing but let me explain, I screwed up making this as a pie. I was going to put it all into a loose bottom cake pan but decided to be "traditional" and make a pie. Big mistake. The slices were almost impossible to get out of the plate resulting in the not so pretty looking crust you see on my slice there. I was kicking myself afterwards that I didn't simply double or triple line the plate with cling film as this pie isn't baked it wouldn't be a problem, then I could have just lifted the whole thing out.

So I thought I would make it again before blogging to make sure this would work but now I cannot find the Granovita Soy Whipping Cream anywhere. The one I used to make this I bought before Christmas. As this pie tasted perfect and I know making it in either a loose bottom cake pan or lining the pie plate or lining a springform cake pan with baking paper WILL solve the removal problem, I decided to go ahead and blog this one. After all, if you follow my food diary you'll know I've been having this pie for afternoon snack for quite a few days now. It is heavenly - just please, do as I say and not as I did and line a loose bottom cake pan instead!

Base: process the digestive biscuits in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Tip into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and cocoa powder. Place the chopped chocolate in another bowl with the vegan buttter. Place this bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate and butter have melted together. Scrape this into the bowl of crumbs and stir well.

Now. Line a high sided, loose bottom cake pan, anywhere from 6" in diameter to 10" in diameter, the smaller the cake pan the higher your pie will be, with cling film, I would give it about 3 layers. Or line a springform pan with baking paper.Tip the crumb mixture into the pan and press it in, just the base, I wouldn't go up the sides. Keep pressing until it is even. I'm guessing you can still do this in a pie plate like I did, but please, line it first! Place it in the fridge to chill and harden.

...and it looked so good at the time!

Filling: Take the soy whipping cream out of the fridge and empty into a large bowl. Add the icing sugar and give it a really good whisk. Melt the white chocolate, I use Sweet William White Chocolate Buttons, yes, this does mean using 12 bags!! It's not a cheap pie this one ;-) You can buy bars of Sweet William but unfortunately not in Ireland that I know of. I placed mine in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. When it is all melted remove and transfer the melted chocolate to another bowl so it will cool quicker.

Leave the chocolate to cool to almost room temperature, stir it now and again so it cools evenly. If you add warm chocolate to chilled whipping cream it may seize up on you. When the chocolate is close to room temperature slowly pour it into the whipping cream whisking quickly as you do. It helps if you have someone else to pour it in whilst you whisk here. When all the chocolate is added give it another good whisk to make sure it's all even then start adding the Creme de Menthe one tablespoon at a time whisking really well after each addition. Now you'll notice the colour problem I was talking about, not nice is it? Add the green food colouring and give it another good whisk until all even in colour.

Take the shell out of the fridge and scrape in all the mousse, level off the top and pop it back into the fridge to fully set, at least 4 hours, I would leave it overnight.

Remove from the fridge and as you learnt from my mistake and made this in a loose bottom cake pan, or a springform pan lined with baking paper, remove and decorate as you like. In the above photos I just drizzled melted chocolate back and forth, whatever you do, keep it simple as this pie is SWEET! It doesn't need much else going on.

Here it is prior to the chocolate drizzle with some Tesco Mint Thins (they are vegan!) I was going to stick them in the pie all over but changed my mind when I realized how sweet the pie was.

* Creme de Menthe: I knew I was going to need this to make the pie and wasn't sure if it was going to be vegan. A quick search online brought me to Steven's blog, Lustrous Musings, of course... should have been the first place I looked!! ;-) He has confirmation that De Kuyper brand Creme de Menthe is indeed vegan, so cheers for the info Steven!

They taste so much like white chocolate and are great in baking. It's an Australian company so I know won't be available everywhere unfortunately. I get mine in my local health food shop. Hope you can find some!

Oh crap. I hope they still make it...I thought it could only not be found around me here in Ireland. Their website still lists it so hopefully it's just a temporary thing.

I was going to use the Soyatoo one in the carton but then saw on their website that they "cannot guarantee whippability" and it's not available either at the moment!

As for another substitution I couldn't really say anything without having tried it. I've always used the Granovita one, even though I hate the taste of it on it's own it makes the BEST mousse....looks like I'll have to experiment with something everyone can find! I'm thinking maybe coconut whipped cream but not sure how the taste will go.

Sorry I can't be of more help and hopefully the Granovita one will be easier to find again, not sure I can live without my mousses!!

I tried a rice cream off vegan store for a choco torte but it didn't whip up at all. I hope the granovita comes back soon, else I'm going to be upset :( there are so many of your things I want to make but cant without the whipping cream!

:-) Yes, I was thinking of that kind of coconut whipped cream. I'm only hesitant as I know a follower tried the Frangelico Chocolate Mousse Gateau with the coconut whipped cream and the mousse turned very hard.

Vegan white chocolate is however quite different in texture than dark chocolate so it still may work.

At any rate I'm happy experimenting with white chocolate and creme de menthe!

Oh goodness yes! That happened to me with dark chocolate and thick coconut cream. Maybe just normal coconut milk would work better. I may have to experiment and if i have to make a few batches then its a sacrifice I'm willing to make!